IPL: Chawla, Rohit star as Mumbai earn first points in last-ball thriller
Mumbai Indians 173 for 4 (Rohit 65, Tilak 41, Mukesh 2-30) beat Delhi Capitals 172 (Axar 54, Warner 51, Chawla 3-22, Behrendorff 3-23) by six wickets
Mumbai Indians held their nerve with the last ball of a scrappy, tension-fuelled basement battle against Delhi Capitals to claw themselves off the bottom of the IPL standings with their first win in three attempts this season, and condemn their opponents to a fourth consecutive loss in a season that is no closer to offering up any answers to their numerous issues.
Piyush Chawla rolled back the years, and ripped his googlies, to serve up game-shaping figures of 3 for 22 either side of a pair of chalk-and-cheese fifties from David Warner and Axar Patel, but despite a timely half-century from Rohit Sharma and 41 from 29 from Tilak Varma, Mumbai were forced to scramble over the line, into the teeth of a magnificent final over from a pumped-up Anrich Nortje.
With just five runs to defend against Cameron Green and the impact sub, Tim David, Nortje nailed his yorkers to perfection, and was let down only by his fielders – first by a bad drop from Mukesh Kumar at midwicket to reprieve David and then, with two runs needed from his final ball, a poor loopy shy from Warner at mid-off that allowed David to dive home for the second run and so avoid the Super Over.
In truth, it was a contest in which Mumbai had bossed the key moments – first through Chawla’s mid-innings incisions, then with the scalping of five wickets in the final ten balls of Delhi’s innings that had kept their target to a gettable 173.
The early exchanges of the run-chase had fallen in the visitors’ favour too, with Rohit’s 65 from 45 including a 29-ball fifty that provided the impetus for a 68-run powerplay.
But after Mumbai failed to kill the chase when the going was still good, Nortje – armed with two death overs and aiming fast, full and furious throughout – so nearly saved the day. (ESPNcricinfo)
